Friday, December 20, 2013

Power Rings!

Futurist's Guide to Gadgets!

Volume 2!

In
the comics, the original Green Lantern Alan Scott, created by Martin Nodell and
Bill Finger in 1940, used a mystical ring to become Green Lantern. Later, in
the Post Crisis era, the ring was shown to be completely distinct from the Oan
Green Lanterns. That ring works in the default way described below except that it is ineffective against wood, not the color yellow.In the 90’s it became the Starheart
and at one point was integrated into Scott as an inherent power. In this case,
Scott should have all of the powers of the ring and the BODY of the ring. Some time after that, it was revealed that the
power ring Scott uses is a primitive Oan design. In this case, Scott should
have the normal Oan GL ring described later on this blog. This is likely the case with Scott
as he appears in Kingdom Come as
well.

The
use of the silver age Green Lantern’s power ring is highly inconsistent, with
different authors treating it in different ways. It is up to the GM how the
ring works in his game, or even if it works only a single way or operates
differently for each wearer.

John
Broome created the rings to work as pure extensions of the wearer’s will. As
long as the wearer’s will is unshaken- and it is never shaken- the ring will
create any construct he wishes. In this case the ring’s APs of Force
Manipulation and Omni Power act as AV and EV of any attack powers. The only
flaw with this ring is that it cannot affect the color yellow. This is the
default method of operation for the ring, and the simplest. The Qwardian ring
and the Star Sapphire Gem, described above, have no weakness, but are generally
less powerful that the Oan ring.

More
modern authors have shown that sonic attacks can break the attention of the ring
wearer. Treat this as any sonic-based attack that causes RAPs of damage will
cancel the effects of the ring, whether or not that damage is erased using Hero
Points or through ther healing methods. The power can be reestablished the next
phase.

Later
authors, most notably Grant Morrison in JLA
and Ron Marz in Green Lantern, treat
the ring as being powered by willpower and confidence but being an extension of
the wearer’s imagination- the wearer in this case being Kyle Rayner. In this
case, the ring has no flaw with the color yellow, but it does suffer if the
user is attacked by sonics, experiences fear, loses concentration, or suffers a blow to his
confidence. Any psychological condition or psycho-affecting power that causes
the wearer fear will also cause the wearer’s ring to suffer a Catastrophic
Power Burnout on all powers. This includes powers like Phobia or Broadcast
Empathy, as well as Irrational Fears or even more personal traumas like losing
a loved one or failing in a critical situation. In addition, Rayner’s ability
to use the ring was based off of his imagination more than his willpower. Thus,
most powers used by the ring’s Force Manipulation or Omni-Power have the NO AV
limitation and use Rayner’s AURA as AV.

Geoff
Johns, the man responsible for reinventing Green Lantern in modern comics,
treats the rings as weapons that require skilled use to use effectively. The
ring is powered by the wearer’s willpower and made powerful by his skill at
focusing it. In this case, the ring’s offensive abilities are controlled by the
use of the Weaponry (Exotic Weapons) subskill. Any attack powers used by the
ring’s Force Manipulation or Omni-Power have the NO AV limitation and use the
wearer’s APs of skill as AV. The ring still has no flaw with the color yellow,
but it does still suffer if the user experiences sonic attacks, fear, loses concentration, or
suffers a blow to his confidence. Any psychological condition or
psycho-affecting power that causes the wearer fear will also cause the wearer’s
ring to suffer a Catastrophic Power Burnout on all powers. This includes powers
like Phobia or Broadcast Empathy, as well as Irrational Fears or even more
personal traumas like losing a loved one or failing in a critical situation.

Since
then, rings of different colors, each corresponding to a different emotion,
have been introduced (further complicating everything). These rings are
virtually identical to the Oan ring described above, but each has an emotion
that powers it: Red = Rage; Orange =
Avarice; Yellow = Fear; Green = Willpower; Blue = Hope; Indigo = Compassion;
Violet = Love; and Black = Death and Emotional Emptiness. The Yellow power ring
replaces the Qwardian ring and the Violet power ring replaces the Star Sapphire
Gem. All of these rings use the Weaponry (Exotic Weapons) skill as AV. All of
them suffer a Catastrophic Power Burnout in the face of a loss of concentration
or confidence. The emotion to which they are attached allows for CS bonuses and
penalties to OV. When in a situation that would directly reinforce the
associated emotion, the ring wearer should receive a -1 CS bonus to OV. However, when in
a situation that directly opposes the associated emotion, the ring wearer suffers a +1
CS penalty to OV.

I could not agree more. I loathe the Rainbow Rings thing. That's why I gave it some hand waving-- I felt that was all it really deserved. I love the Silver Age's Guardian Green vs Weaponeer Yellow and I still think it is the best.

That's cool. I stopped reading a few years back. When I stopped, the rainbow rings were so prevalent that it was incomprehensible to readers, like myself, who were unfamiliar with it all. I still prefer the classic Oa vs Qward set up, but I do have to admit that the red rings were very cool in the cartoon.